Refraction memories of Rhino3

[Krylon64]

Why in VfR4 are materials with refraction layer added displayed as black? They are always black. I remember the render preview in R3 was able to display materials with a refraction layer as such. Am I missing something in the appearance settings?

Thanks.

[dalomar_cg]

Re: Refraction memories of Rhino3

I guess you're referring to viewport display?...There really isn't any information currently (hopefully in v5 though) that we can hand off to Rhino that will display refraction within the viewport. I believe that the diffuse color still shows up, so if thats black maybe thats what you're seeing.

[Krylon64]

Re: Refraction memories of Rhino3

Yeah, I am seeing the diffuse. I know this is a McNeel issue, but still miss it. Plus their forums are weak-sauce compared to that of the mighty ASGVIS.
;D ;D

[dalomar_cg]

Re: Refraction memories of Rhino3

Their forums??? they only have a newsgroup, and its actually very useful. There are a number of McNeelies that are on there every day and even Bob from time to time, not to mention the loads of power users that are always helping out. I wouldn't use weak at all. The only thing that I would say is that the web interface kinda sucks, but in a newsreader (like thunderbird) its so much better.

The web side:
http://news2.mcneel.com/scripts/dnew...er&group=rhino

[Micha_cg]

Re: Refraction memories of Rhino3

Why in VfR4 are materials with refraction layer added displayed as black? They are always black. I remember the render preview in R3 was able to display materials with a refraction layer as such. Am I missing something in the appearance settings?

Thanks.

More important than show refraction transparency is to show the transparency of the diffuse channel, because it's often used for arch viz. All billboard materials/transparency mapped plants and architectural glass are looking opaque at the Rhino viewport, so the viewport of a Vray scene can't be used for a good looking preview.

Much more a problem: transparency maps at Rhino materials are ignored by Vray. Objects from libraries like plant libraries can't be direct used, each object must get a vray material and at large scenes the material editor is full of billboard / plant materials.

An other problem is or will be, that Rhino transparency based on alpha maps and Vray use transparency maps (other b&w logic). An option like "invert all Rhino material transparency maps" or "invert all transparency maps for Rhino viewport" could be useful.
The goal should be, that user can use rhino material for viewport and rendering. The other direction should be not a problem, for Vray can be used alpha maps and the option "invert".

.... so some thoughts.

[dalomar_cg]

Re: Refraction memories of Rhino3

Although the v4 display is much better than v3, there still are somethings that it doesn't afford us. Setting the transparency of a material via a map is not available yet. Other things like multiple maps or display of specific channels (or multiple channels) is just not there yet. I'm not sure why we don't send solid transparency information since this can be adjusted and seen in the viewport.

We are looking to make our materials much more robust, and having a solid connection with Rhino materials are a part of that. Again, this is something that we just aren't doing at the moment, and we need to clean up a lot of these loose ends. The transparency/opacity map isn't really a barrier, since is should be default that the maps are inverted. Proper support of basic rhino material properties can clean up the amount of materials in the material editor and make simple applications (such as billboards) stay simple.

[Micha_cg]

Re: Refraction memories of Rhino3

... here an other request to this topic from the Rhino forum:

http://news2.mcneel.com/scripts/dnew...m=293648&utag=

[Krylon64]

Re: Refraction memories of Rhino3

So much for trying to compliment ASGVIS forums...sheesh!

"their forums are weak-sauce compared to that of the mighty ASGVIS."